Written: 8 March 2017 Source: Office Notebook Context: Found in an old office notebook while looking for someone’s passport. Flipped through the pages. There, sitting hidden amidst a sea of technical notes, were these Urdu lines. ہم نے جس جس کو بھی چاہا تیرے ہجراں میں وہ لوگ آتے جاتے ہوئے موسم تھے زمانہ تو…
Category: Dear Diary
Feelings and opinions (and frustrations) about things in general, mostly about work.
Recovered Pages #000
These pages were never meant to be published. Most were written years before this blog existed. Some come from old diaries, notebooks, loose sheets of paper, forgotten files, and half-filled journals that somehow survived moves, cleanups, and the passage of time. I’m sharing them exactly because they belong to a different version of me. Some…
Sunday Screed | Janaza
Assalamualaikum! How are you guys? I was watching Zanjeerein Episode 7 a couple of days back, and it disturbed me deeply, seeing the janazas and qabrs does thato to me, even though it’s just on the screen. So, I thought it would be best if I get it out of my system. It’s been almost…
Work Anniversary | 14 Years & Counting
It’s that time of the year. Last year, I realized that I give this day a lot of importance and I credited it to being the reason tostart this blog in the first place. Now, I think it’s more of a tradition, and also a dull ache somewhere that I’m still here with the work…
Random Rambling | Amazon Categories
Here’s a random rambling for today, because… why not? I was innocently browsing through Amazon’s Short Stories category the other day — not for research, not for literary enlightenment, but for something far more noble. I was trying to bulk-up my Goodreads 2026 Reading Challenge. (P.S I’ve planned to read 30 books this year. I…
Random Rambling | Interview Anniversary
It’s my interview anniversary today. Hey, people celebrate 15-days birthday; weekversary, monthversary and whatnot. Why can’t I talk about interview anniversary? It’s not like I’m celebrating it. 14 years ago. On this day, I had interviewed for my current job. It was a pleasant October afternoon. For the past two days, I had been…
Random Rambling | On The Rocks
As soon as she left the hospital, she took a deep breath. The breath that had been trapped behind the mask all day seemed to have been released from her lungs now. The patients of the day, their relatives, injections, medicines, files — all were echoing in her mind like a crowd. The…
Random Rambling | Phlegm Machine
Meet the Phlegm Machine At least twice a year, I turn into what I can only describe as a phlegm machine. Once when the winter is just beginning, and again when it is packing its bags. Like clockwork, my body decides to audition for a one-person orchestra, complete with blocked sinuses, scratchy throat,…
Random Rambling | 20 Years
(Un)happy work anniversary 20 years ago, on a pleasant monsoon morning, I joined my first job. It was a Friday. I wore a new salwar kameez that mum had stitched for this very event-white kurta with lavender and cyan flowers paired with solid cyan salwar and dupatta. My heart raced so hard as…
Random Rambling | That’s not how you do it, hon!
Yesterday morning, I decided to quit tea for good. And it was one of the best decision of my life. And I survived, almost fourteen hours since the sweeping declaration, almost thirty hours without tea. I was feeling quite proud of myself. But then, after dinner, my head started to spin, my eyes were…